


Suspicion

by ValkerieRupert



Series: Autistic Headcanons [6]
Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Autism, Autism Spectrum, Autistic Meltdown, Autistic Natsuki, Autistic Natsuki (Doki Doki Literature Club!), Autistic Sayori, Autistic Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club!), Autistic Yuri, Autistic Yuri (Doki Doki Literature Club!), Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Meltdown, Special Interests, Stimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-30 20:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15104396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValkerieRupert/pseuds/ValkerieRupert
Summary: Maybe they could somehow smell their own kind; maybe it was obvious. But either way, both Sayori and Yuri were suspicious of Natsuki.





	1. Stimming

Natsuki was always the weird one.  
She got far too obsessed with her manga. Her father told her that manga was childish, that she needed to grow up, but it didn't stop her. She read and read and read for hours at a time no matter what he said. When he eventually snapped and threatened to beat her to death if she didn't get rid of her manga immediately, she pretended she was taking it to the rubbish bin on the way to school, and talked Monika and the teachers into letting her store it in the clubroom.  
She still normally had at least one manga book in her locker or her bag, though. She read it in class. The teachers told her to stop but she always started reading again when she had free time after finishing her work. Eventually the teachers would get fed up and take it off her.  
They normally only did that once, though. They wouldn't do it again after they realized that despite being assured that it was just so she would pay attention to the schoolwork and she would have it back at the end of the lesson, she would never be able to get her work done for fear of the teachers damaging her manga or not giving it back. Sometimes she would even cry over it. Everyone in the class always thought she was a little brat, and they gave her no end of teasing for crying over manga, but she tried not to let it bother her.  
Even so, there were somethines she stopped doing because her father and classmates disapproved of it. When she was younger, she used to flap her hands when she was excited. She didn't know why she did it; it came naturally to her. Her father had beat the habit out of her by the time she entered high school, though.  
So it was a great surprise to both her and the other girls when she found herself flapping her arms in the clubroom.  
They had been talking about her manga (well, she had been talking about her manga while the others reluctantly listened), but the second her hands started moving all the focus was on her.  
"What are you doing?" asked Monika.  
"Oh my gosh!" stuttered Sayori. "You're hand flapping like me! I'm a bad influence on you!"  
Natsuki shook her head. "No, I-I'm not doing it because of you!" she snapped. "Don't be so stupid! I used to do it all the time when I was a kid, but my dad wouldn't let me, okay?! Jeez, way to think everything's about you."  
Yuri and Sayori exchanged a knowing look, but neither said anything.


	2. Special Interest

A few weeks after the incident in which Natsuki had found herself involuntarily flapping her arms in the clubroom, Monika had declared that in order for the club to get along better, they would all share their favourite forms of literature. Sayori didn't want to admit that the only form of literature she consumed often was fanfiction, and Yuri was too shy to share her books first, so first it was Natsuki's turn to show the others her manga.   
The plan had been that she would give them a set of manga to choose from and a short, fairly spoiler-free summary of each, and then allow them to work through it at her own pace, but by the time each had started reading, she was hovering from girl to girl, rambling on at great lengths about the manga they were reading.  
It made her so excited that nobody had the heart to tell her to shut up. Her eyes lit up when she talked about her manga, in a way they had never seen her eyes light up before. She knew so much about it, it seemd as though she had read every page a hundred times and then spent another two hours researching it.  
Yuri and Sayori exchanged a knowing look, and whispered two words in unision:  
 _"Special interest."_


	3. Meltdown

It wasn't unusual for Natsuki and Yuri to argue; in fact, while they did care about each other deep down, one could say that more time in the Literature Club was taken by them fighting than actually consuming, discussing or creating literature.  
Natsuki had already been stressed when she came into the club room- something about classmates bullying her, she didn't want to elaborate- but it wasn't until she and Yuri got into their usual arguments that she really started to break down.  
Yuri hadn't said anything particularly offensive, just the usual stuff about how books were better than manga, but all the while Natsuki's voice was breaking, and she sounded like she was about to burst into tears.   
"Ugh!" screamed Natsuki after she had had enough. "I hate you with every inch of my being!"  
Monika chuckled. "That's not a lot of inches."  
Natsuki stared silently, too furious to do anything, and then ran to the corner of the clubroom, knocking over any chairs in her way on the way there. The others girls, unsure of what to do, heard her sob. Monika bit her lip. "Do you think we should-"  
"No," said Yuri forcefully. "I think she needs some time to cool down now. We'll check on her in a few minutes."  
Monika nodded weakly. After a few moments, Sayori nervously glanced at the corner Natsuki was in. The pink-haired girl was hitting herself in the head.  
Yuri and Sayori exchanged a knowing look, and they said, just loud enough to hear:  
 _"Meltdown."_


	4. Arrangements

Sayori and Yuri were both starting to draw the same conclusion, but Sayori was too forgetful to think about it when the evidence wasn't staring her in the face or remember that Yuri, too, was autistic, so it was up to Yuri to arrange things so they could talk.  
They couldn't do it in the Literature Club, of course- even if Natsuki didn't hear them, it would be rude to talk about her like that in the same room as her. She had tried to talk to Sayori on the way home, but Natsuki would walk with them for half of the trip and then Yuri would have to seperate from Sayori to get home. So eventually she had to ask her for her phone number in the middle of the club.  
Of course, they had exchanged numbers with Natsuki too (she had refused to accept that maybe Yuri was befriending Sayori faster than her), but that didn't matter. What mattered was that she could now call Sayori- and, one day, a few minutes after she had gotten home from school, that was exactly what she did.  
She heard Sayori's cheerful voice on the other side. "Hi Yuri! Ehehe~! So, why are you calling?"  
Yuri frowned slightly at the oblivious Sayori's antics. "Well, I've been thinking about Natsuki-"  
That got Sayori talking. "Yeah, she's probably autistic!"  
Yuri sighed; Sayori's uncanny ability to read her thoughts when she wasn't as oblivious as a brick was useful, but sometimes she was a little too direct. "Do you think we should talk to her?"  
"Well, duh! Ehehe~! We'll talk to her in the club tomorrow."  
And talk to her in the club they did.


	5. Explanations

Of course, her initial response was denial. That was Natsuki for you. The second she heard what they were talking about, she shut down all of their evidence by accusing them of projecting themselves onto her and then stomped off to read manga in the corner of the clubroom.  
She didn't dare to admit it, but maybe some part of her deep down thought that there was some chance that Yuri and Sayori were right, because when she went home that night, she told her father about the events of the day.  
She normally never told him about what happened at school- the smallest thing was enough to anger him, and she hated when he was angry. Of course, he didn't like the idea that his perfect daughter could possibly be disabled; he brushed off her concerns as 'looking for attention' and told her not to believe what her friends were saying.   
It took a lot of courage, but after a few days, she swallowed her pride and asked them why they thought she was autistic.  
Their reasoning made sense on the surface- special interests, stimming, meltdowns, eye contact- but she was still skeptical. It was at least a few months of researching in her spare time, talking to other autistic people and having Sayori point out whenever she showed any autistic traits before she felt comfortable calling herself autistic.  
It explained a lot, when she thought about it. It made her feel like she belonged to a group somehow, and that she wasn't just a weirdo who was obsessed with manga. Sure, she still had her classmates teasing her and her father seeming to hate her, but at least now she knew why. At least now she knew she wasn't just weird.  
At least now she had two wonderful autistic friends she could talk to about her problems.


End file.
